Local couple raising funds to support children’s shelter in Thailand for New Years/birthday party

Menlo Park residents Nalin and Mark Decker founded the DASchild charitable organization in 2007 with an aim to protect children from trafficking in Thailand. DASchild works closely with a shelter — Baan Nana (Thai for Childlife) Shelter — in Northern Thailand, which is home to over 80 children who have been saved from such conditions. Baan Nana provides emergency and long-term shelter including education, medical care, food, and clothing for these children.

The Decker family will be traveling to visit Baan Nana to host a New Years Day/birthday party for the children. Most of the them do not know their official birth date, so the shelter assigned January 1st as their birthday!

To raise money for the shelter and to provide gifts for the children on their birthday, a fundraising event will take place at the home of Stacy and Robert May in Menlo Park on November 16th with a goal of providing each Baan Nana child with a package of a small gift, bath towel, school socks, shoes, sandals and underwear. The event will run from 1:30 to 3:30 pm; address is 371 Camino Al Lago, Menlo Park.

In addition to the child’s gift, donations will go toward feeding the children, supporting Baan Nana’s Childlife Rice Program and Water Improvement Project.